Declan's Moon

Barbaro06 · Postby **Barbaro06** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:58 am

It wasn't pleasant watching Declan's Moon come home last in the San Pasqual yesterday. He has not been the same after the knee surgery and layoffs. He's lost a few steps and I also think his confidence has been rattled pretty bad. I would hate to see him take a drop in class, but perhaps some allowance races would help him regain his confidence. Ellis is pretty gutsy sending out his charge in stakes competition, but maybe it is too much too soon for a horse who has been out of action for a time.

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 10:01 am

Yep, in the old days you almost always ran a horse through his conditions before you bothered with a stake. I'm pretty sure I remember Seattle Slew came back in an allowance after a layoff, didn't he? I think it's a great confidence builder for a horse to wallop some lower competition before going back up against the best in a graded stake. But these days they seem to have a limited amount of races in them...

As a co-owner of a Malibu Moon colt, I surely wanted to see Declan come back strong, but it looked like he lost a step yesterday.

Rokeby Forever · Postby **Rokeby Forever** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 10:42 am

Ron Ellis couldn't train an elephant to eat peanuts.

Barbaro06 · Postby **Barbaro06** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:52 pm

Majxmom...well put. I keep an eye out for the Malibu Moons out there...I got to meet Perfect Moon, MM's first stakes winner, up at Country Life here in Maryland. I checked out Malibu Moon's other progeny and they are doing pretty good. We had Ah Day up here winning the local stakes races. His last race wasn't so great, but I think he was due for a rest. Malibu Mint was good last year too. And I am hoping to see Spectacular Malibu bounce back after being caught in the last few jumps of the Maryland Juvenile Fillies Championship. I got to see her too which was awesome along with Surf Light, the winner of the 2005 Maryland Million Ladies Stakes.

I wish you luck with your Malibu Moon colt. By the way, what's his name?

Loyola · Postby **Loyola** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:40 pm

I loved to see DM take the lead, but he was obviously not ready for a sustained stretch run--what conditions are still open to him?

I have a MM yearling in the paddock as well, and wanted to see him do good. Our boy is a tall, leggy sone of a gun, but a real sweetheart (except when his "brother" tries to steal food from his bucket at feeding)!

Des · Postby **Des** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:14 pm

He was looking good running down the backstretch, then when he made the turn for home its as if he hit a brickwall, The jock tried everything for him to grab the bit again, but he wanted no part of the race.............He really needs and could use a shorter confidence builder.

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:47 pm

Barbaro06 wrote:I wish you luck with your Malibu Moon colt. By the way, what's his name?

His name is Daniel Moon. He's a 2yo of 2007, a partnership colt. He's being trained right now at Merryland, but he's got a long way to go yet. He's pretty gangly looking in his pictures. Josh mentioned him in his Merryland diary in the Bloodhorse a couple of months ago, although it was a bit of a shameless plug. I think Josh realized that all of his various owners would love to see their horses' names in print, and he squeezed them all into that issue.

Daniel Moon's dam is Romantic Pro. She's a half sister to Anet, who made over a million, and she's produced a couple of hundred grand winners. Hansel is under the third dam, if I remember correctly. So I've at least got a prayer he could be an allowance horse. They seem to do a good job breaking colts at Merryland. Mel Stute sent a few there. When a CA trainer uses a MD farm to break his colts, they've got to be good.

Barbaro06 · Postby **Barbaro06** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:27 pm

Thanks majxmom...I recall Daniel being offered for a partnership. I did check out Country Life and was quite impressed and would love to buy into a Malibu Moon colt/filly/gelding. I got to see some of the youngsters workout when I was there last March. Cold windy day did not deter me from watching them go around the training track at Merryland.

zinn21 · Postby **zinn21** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:34 pm

He's in this Saturday (20th) at Golden Gate Fields in an allowance race going a flat mile. It appears Ellis is looking for a confidence builder.

Barbaro06 · Postby **Barbaro06** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:30 pm

Thanks zinn...

Another stakes winner for Malibu Moon...Sagamoon takes the Busanda!

Rokeby Forever · Postby **Rokeby Forever** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:52 am

What's left with this colt that Ron Ellis is choosing Golden Gate to run him? Declan's Moon didn't do much in 2006 - there are plenty of money conditions that could be written to suit the horse at Santa Anita.

You have to wonder why Ron Ellis is "backing off" on the colt instead of the other way around. Instead of bringing the horse back slowly, he put him in stakes thinking the horse was ready for them. Now, you have to ask - what's left? Guys just aren't patient any more, are they?

Barbaro06 · Postby **Barbaro06** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:34 pm

I think Ellis had confidence in his horse to try him in stakes company after his lay off. Perhaps it was too much for Declan, but there are so many variables. Perhaps Ellis is now going for something much more low key for the gelding in hopes of getting his confidence back. It's a new year and Declan is a gelding, so he can be around for awhile.

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 4:06 pm

Golden Gate has a history of writing overnight allowances to help good SoCal horses that are looking for a specific race: Real Quiet, Wild Again, etc. I think they called the GGF racing secretary, and he said, "Heck, yeah! I'll write you a race!" Of course, Real Quiet got beaned, and Wild Again ran third...but it worked in the long run!

zinn21 · Postby **zinn21** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:44 pm

SoCal horses shipping in for these conditions have an extremely high win strike rate.

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:22 pm

Declan's last race?

Just watched him run last. His action behind seemed odd, like his back was sore or something. He seemed to be bunching his hind end up extremely high with every stride. I'm going to check out calracing.com and see what his past clips look like, but it doesn't seem like he'll ever win again. He tried to bear out repeatedly also.

He wasn't good in the gate, either. I hope he enjoys his retirement...